'Bathroom bill' aimed at transgender persons fails in state Senate

Updated 6:15 pm, Wednesday, February 10, 2016

State Rep. Brady Walkinshaw: "It's become so palpable to me the fear and pain this legislation is creating for so many people just trying to lead their private lives."

State Rep. Brady Walkinshaw: "It's become so palpable to me the fear and pain this legislation is creating for so many people just trying to lead their private lives."

Photo: Washington State Legislature

'Bathroom bill' aimed at transgender persons fails in state Senate

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The Washington state Senate, on a 25-24 vote, has defeated legislation that would have repealed a new rule allowing transgender people to use restrooms and locker rooms of the gender with which they identify.

"Thank God the bill died," Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas, wrote on his Facebook page after the vote.

Conservative Republican legislators, and allies in such groups as the Family Policy Institute, have made limiting civil rights of transgender teenagers a major objective in this year's session of the Legislature.

They have attacked a recent rule by the state's Human Rights Commission that transgender persons can use public restrooms of their choice.

SB 6443, sponsored by Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, would have repealed the rule and forbade the Human Rights Commission from again taking up the issue. It cleared committee last week and reached the Senate floor on Wednesday.

A trio of Republicans from the eastern part of King County -- Sens. Andy Hill, Steve Litzow and Joe Fain -- supplied the votes that defeated the legislation.

"Legislation to create more uncertainty and reduce the rights of any minority does more to divide us than to bring equality," Litzow said after the vote.

"This provides our state with a powerful opportunity to educate more people about our transgender community members and the struggles and discrimination they already face."

One Democratic lawmaker, Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, voted in favor of the legislation. So did a titular Democrat, Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlach, who endorses Republicans and caucuses with them in Olympia.

The issue has stirred emotional debate.

"It's become so palpable to me, the fear and pain this legislation is creating for so many people just trying to lead their private lives," Rep. Brady Walkinshaw, D-Seattle, wrote Wednesday on his Facebook page.

To which Ranker added: "The fact that they (Republicans) would allow it to come to the (Senate) floor for a vote makes me question their values as well."

State Sen. Marko Liias, D-Lynwood, argued: "Transgender people aren't some nameless, faceless group. They are our friends and neighbors, our children and our parents. They face tremendous challenges fitting into our society, and we should work to welcome them -- not exclude them."

A supporter of the "bathroom bill," Rep. Matt Manweller, D-Ellensburg, recently tweeted: "It looks like the new 'let men in women's bathroom' rule DOES apply to schools. Nice job, Dems. Repeal the rule now or we'll see you in November."

While the Eastside Republican trio opposed the "bathroom bill," five Puget Sound-area Republican senators were among its supporters.

They include Ericksen, as well as Sen. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor, Pierce County Sens. Bruce Dammeier and Steve O'Ban, and Kitsap County Sen. Jan Angel.

Danni Askini, executive director of the Gender Justice League, wrote after the vote:

"We did it. WE KILLED THE BILL. Thank all D's except Sen. Hargrove and thank Sen. Hill, Sen. Litzow & Sen. Fain -- all R's who were with us."

Curiously, Litzow supplied a key vote for LGBT rights within hours of being pilloried in The Stranger.